Excellence in Research Australia (ERA)

• ERA Preparations at UWS
• Key Dates
• ERA News
• ERA Background

ERA Preparations at UWS

The Office of Research Services is currently uploading data and finalising background statements for the ERA trial evaluating the Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences (PCE) and Humanities and Creative Arts (HCA) clusters.
Workshops were held during April and May 2009 to brief researchers in Clusters 1 and 2 in order to progress the University’s ERA submission.

Repository

All items for review will be available to reviewers via the UWS Research Repository.

Ranked journals listing available from a site established by John Lamp at Deakin University.

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Key Dates

The ERA trial census date is 31st March 2008 and the closing window for publications is 31st December 2007.

The ERA trial will evaluate research publications over a six year period - 1 January 2002–31 December 2007. Income will be evaluated over a three year period - 1 January 2005–31 December 2007. The outcomes of the trials will inform the full ERA process in 2010.

Submissions for the PCE cluster commence June 1, 2009, and submissions for the HCA cluster will commence August 3, 2009.

The full 8 cluster ERA process in 2010 census date is 31st March 2009 and the closing window is 31st December 2008.

The full ERA will evaluate research publications over a six year period - 1 January 2003–31 December 2008. Income will be evaluated over a three year period - 1 January 2006–31 December 2008.

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ERA News

Use of esteem measures have been removed for the trial but may reappear in the full ERA review in 2010.

The bibliometrics data for the trial is to be supplied by SCOPUS but this may change in the full review. Ranking of publishers has been abandoned.

The ARC has released the ERA Indicator Principles and ERA Indicator Descriptors. 

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ERA Background

In February 2008, the Hon. Senator Kim Carr, Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, announced the Excellence in Research Australia (ERA) initiative. The Australian Research Council (ARC) has assumed responsibility for ERA in consultation with the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). The ERA initiative is aimed at evaluating excellence in all areas of research, including pure and applied as well as industry collaborations, within the Australian higher education sector. It will seek to assess research quality using a combination of indicators and expert review by committees comprising experienced, internationally-recognised experts.

ERA will report by institution and by discipline those areas that are internationally competitive, together with emerging areas where there are opportunities for development and further investment.

ERA will use the new Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) – Fields of Research (replacing RFCDs) as the primary tool for defining disciplines.  Further information on the ANZSRC may be obtained at the Australian Bureau of Statistics webpage.

UWS has participated in all aspects of the development of the ERA, including a pilot evaluation of the IT systems. In July draft ERA journal rankings were released and UWS provided feedback and recommended changes to 354 journals. The ARC has now released journal rankings A*, A, B, C for the first two clusters of disciplines to be reviewed.

Quality will be determined by a combination of metrics and expert review by 8 discipline based expert panels, commencing with at trial of physics, chemistry and geosciences (cluster 1) and then humanities and creative arts (cluster 2) during 2009.  A full review of all clusters, including 1 and 2 will commence in 2010 informed by the trial process.

The ERA Indicators Development Group has issued advice on measures to be used for the first cluster evaluation. The University is awaiting advice from the ARC on the date for submission of ERA data.

More information is available from the Australian Research Council webpage.

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